


even if.

by porcelainsimplicity



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Hardass!Storm, I may have lied when I said Rogue was gone for good, I told you Pyro was a novelist, I'm honestly surprised anyone is reading this, Iceman the Activist, M/M, Mentioned Fictional Characters of a Fictional Novel, Post - X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Pyro the Novelist, Rogue left the mansion for good, Since no one knows how Charles gets back in his body I'm just pretending that hasn't happened yet, So Charles is still considered dead in this, There just isn't a mutant in the Marvel universe that would have worked for this, These tags will all make sense at some point, This ended up going places I never expected it to, This is so canon divergence at this point, Well I'm making up a way that Charles gets back in his body, Yeah I made up a mutant, Yeah I might have brought the Mutant Registration Act back, You know how I said no one knows how Charles gets back in his body?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-02
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-07 02:43:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 18,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1882053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelainsimplicity/pseuds/porcelainsimplicity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>after the events on alcatraz island, pyro is a captive of the x-men at the mansion.  but he soon learns he still has a friend there, even though he really, really shouldn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [How to escape from prison in 210 days](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1654079) by [mayachain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayachain/pseuds/mayachain). 



> i know that practically no one is going to read this except for scarlett, but it's in my head and it's killing me, so it needs to get out. so i'm writing it and posting it and if you happen to like it, please tell me so. thank you.

Even if I apologize  
I know,  
I got a hill to climb  
And I know,  
That I'll never quite convince you  
Even if I apologize  
I know,  
That's not enough sometimes  
Although  
It's all I have to give you  
So I'll just stand here broken  
'cause I haven't had any sleep  
And I'm forcing my eyes open  
To see reality  
And the colors that I'm made of  
Are pouring out of me  
But I can't run away  
From a big mistake  
No I can't run away  
From a big mistake  
even if – lewis watson  


**  
_day 353._   
**

It's been almost a year since he'd ended up in this cell. When he'd first woken up in it, he was terrified that he was in the custody of some government organization, someone who knew exactly who he was and exactly what all he'd done, and that the cell he was in was where he was going to spend the rest of his life.

Hell, they could probably lock him up without a trial for some of the shit he'd done.

But then Bobby had come into the room and he'd realized that he was probably just downstairs at the mansion, and though in some ways that was considerably worse, because he was definitely with people who knew exactly who he was and exactly what all he'd done, it was better than being at the mercy of the government.

He never had trusted the government.

Bobby came into the room some time between lunch and dinner every other day. And it had been that way for nearly a year, and he only knew it had been nearly a year because for some reason, in the cell with him, was a couple of pencils and a notebook. He knew exactly who had put it there, and he knew exactly why he had, but every time Bobby came into the room to observe him, he didn't say a word.

Bobby never said anything to him either. Bobby just sat there on a chair and watched him.

It had been on day one hundred and forty-one that he'd first said something to Bobby, some smart remark that only Pyro could make, about how valuable he was to Magneto and that he'd surely figure out where he was at some point, and then the whole mansion had better watch out.

Bobby had just stretched out his legs and calmly mentioned that Magneto was hit with the cure, so no, he wasn't coming to get him.

If he was honest with himself, he'd admit that he took the news very, very badly. But he didn't admit that to anyone, especially Bobby.

But after that brief exchange, they started talking to one another. At first it was just quips back and forth about how Pyro really could have won that fight at Alcatraz if he'd really wanted to, and Iceman laughing and reminding him of how much he'd kicked Pyro's ass on that island. 

Eventually he asked how he'd gotten to the mansion.

Eventually Bobby admitted that he'd made sure that he'd been carried to safety, and then Storm decided he needed to be imprisoned for what he'd done.

For some reason, after that, they weren't Pyro and Iceman anymore. Bobby was Bobby and John was John and they were talking about shit just like the old days. _Did you know that Kitty finally hooked up with Piotr?_ and _Artie's sister came to the school and she's just as weird as his tongue is,_ and _Mystique was pretty hot once she wasn't a mutant anymore,_ and _Living from safehouse to safehouse isn't anywhere near as fun as it sounds._

John never asked where Rogue was. Bobby one day admitted that she had gotten the cure and left. _A mutant school isn't a place for a non-mutant, right?_

There had been just enough of a hint of hurt in Bobby's voice that John hadn't pressed. He wanted to know – was actually _dying_ to know – but he didn't press the issue.

Bobby started bringing him books to read, and John started using the notebook to do more than just keep track of how many days he'd been there. But that didn't stop, and as he counted up all of the marks he'd made, he'd realized that this was day three hundred and fifty-three. Nearly a year.

He really was going to spend the rest of his life in that godforsaken prison cell in the basement of the mansion. Bobby had never mentioned any way that he could begin to think of as possibly getting out of there, and if Storm was anything like the hardass he remembered, he was never going to see anything but the inside of that room ever again.

Then Bobby came walking in, stuck a key into the door to the cell, opened it, and told John to get up.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked defensively. Sure, he and Bobby had become a little chummy over the last year, but he'd never thought Bobby would be getting him out of there.

“I talked to Storm,” Bobby said. “She agreed that you can be let out once a week in order to help me do something around the mansion. I thought you might like it.”

It was then that John realized Bobby had always valued their friendship a hell of a lot more than he had, and it made him feel like shit. “That's great,” he said, walking out of the cell. “I suppose I'm not going to be let around anything that I can set on fire, am I?”

“Not yet,” Bobby said, taking John by the elbow and leading him out of the room. “We're going to do laundry.”

Laundry. He'd been let out of his cell to do laundry with Bobby Drake.

Next thing he knew, he was in front of a row of washers and dryers, and basket upon basket of dirty laundry, all separated out by student. They each worked on a basket at a time, separating out whites from colors, making sure to put the fabric softener in, then sitting down against the opposite wall to chat while the washers and dryers ran through their cycles.

At the end of the day, when John was put back in his cell, he told Bobby he would have preferred to stay there instead of doing laundry, but that the company wasn't so bad. Bobby gave him a brilliant smile and John felt himself go a little weak, and once Bobby had left the room, he dropped down to his knees and banged his head as hard as he could stand against the floor.

He did not have a fucking crush on Bobby Drake.

Fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

_**day 492.** _

It's been one hundred and thirty-nine days since Bobby first let him out of his cell. He's done laundry and dishes and wiped down tables and vacuumed floors. He's been kept far away from the students, and thankfully, far away from Storm too. But every second that he was out of that cell, Bobby was right next to him, and John's feelings for him continued to grow.

Feelings. He was so much better off when he was pretending he didn't have any.

It had been day one hundred and four of this kinda, sorta freedom when John had said it. He didn't really think it was that big of a deal, because he thought that Bobby already knew. Still, the words rang through air that was so thick that they cut it like a knife.

“I regret some of it. Not all of it, but some of it.”

Bobby hadn't said anything after his admission. And he hadn't really said anything in the thirty-five days since either. John didn't know how to take the silence, except he did, because he knew Bobby, and Bobby got quiet when he was contemplating things. One of these days, he would either tell John he believed him or he didn't, and that would be the end of it.

And so it was on this day, day four hundred and ninety-two of his captivity, day thirty-five since his admission, that Bobby finally said something to him about it.

“What do you regret most?”

It was the question John least wanted to answer, so of course it was the one Bobby had asked. 

This time John became the silent one. He knew what his initial, automatic response to that question would be, but he wasn't sure that it would be the truthful one. So as he wiped down sticky tables and cursed kids who had food fights in the cafeteria under his breath, he thought about it.

There were lots of things John regretted. Some of the times he'd had to kill people, some of the times he'd followed Magneto's orders without realizing the consequences of them, the stupid thing he said to Bobby at Alcatraz about how he should have left school. 

It was really that last thing that led him back to his initial, automatic response. And he was just about to tell Bobby what that response was when Kitty came running into the room.

“Bobby! The Brotherhood! It's happening!”

Kitty went running out of the room and before John could say a word, Bobby sprinted after her. John was left in the cafeteria with a wet rag in his hands, and as soon as he heard the rumble of the jet leaving, he decided he'd had enough of wiping down tables.

He left the cafeteria and started wandering down the halls of the mansion like he used to do when he couldn't sleep, wondering if there were any adults left in the house or if they'd all taken off in the jet to go fight whatever was left of the Brotherhood. 

The Brotherhood. He'd been second in command in the organization by the time Alcatraz happened. He'd earned Magneto's trust, and in return Magneto was good to him. He could tell that Magneto hadn't thought all that much of him when he'd first jumped into that helicopter, but he'd worked hard and proven himself invaluable. He wondered who was left, who it was that was out there still fighting. He wondered if Magneto knew about it, if he was still involved with it even if he had been hit with the cure, if he could still command all those people like he'd used to.

Maybe John was delusional, but he'd thought that maybe someday when Magneto died, he'd take over the Brotherhood and keep up the fight. Mystique was a threat to that thought until she'd been hit by the cure, but that had cleared John's path to the top. Magneto was old enough; he didn't think it would have been too long of a wait.

But now that he'd had more than a year to reflect upon his time in the Brotherhood, he realized that he actually regretted a lot of what he'd done. He'd hurt people. He'd killed people. He'd taken away people's mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, neighbors and friends. And for what? To prove that John Allerdyce didn't need a family? That's what had always scared him the most about the mansion. Everyone treated him like family.

Magneto had treated him like just another soldier.

John had survived perfectly well on his own before Xavier collected him in New York City one night, after an incident at a diner when his powers had flared and the fire from the grill suddenly enveloped the entire place. He'd run and run and run as far away from that place as he could get, a fourteen-year-old kid that thought he knew everything but couldn't even control his own powers. 

The Professor had shown up no more than half an hour after John had stopped running, and told John that he needn't be alone. He'd really only gone with the man because he'd promised to help John control his powers, and that's all John wanted. Then he ended up in English classes and reading books by authors he'd never heard of and putting pen to paper and writing his own stories. 

He'd actually thought that he'd like to be a novelist someday. He'd write about mutants and their abilities, and he'd try to show people through words that they shouldn't be feared or marginalized.

He's not entirely sure when that idea began to change, when exactly it was his beliefs had changed to those of Magneto's, but the more he thought about it, the more he decided that his beliefs laid somewhere between the Professor's and Magneto's. Diplomacy and conversation would work for awhile, but when it came down to it, you had to be willing to fight for what you believed in.

Xavier was too much talk; Magneto was too much action.

After making his first lap through the house, he realized that he really was the only adult left in the mansion, and the part of his brain that still called itself Pyro started screaming at him to make a break for it. He could be halfway to wherever by the time that they came back. There was a safehouse near D.C. that he could make it to in no time if he stole one of the cars in the garage.

But going to the safehouse meant going back to the Brotherhood, and John didn't want to do that. He'd given up on the Brotherhood just like it seemed the Brotherhood had given up on him. Not a single one of them had tried to get him out of his captivity, so if they didn't give a shit about him, he wasn't going to give a shit about them. 

He went around and checked on all the children, silently telling himself he was doing it for Bobby's sake and not because he cared, and made sure Jones was in front of the television as per usual. Then he took the elevator downstairs, but instead of heading to the room where his cell was, he positioned himself outside the doors to the underground hangar.

And then he waited.

Eventually, he heard the sound of the jet touching down, and then Kitty and Piotr came through the doors, and he could tell by the shock on their faces that they had expected him to have run while he had the chance. Logan just gave him a nod before reaching for a cigar and walking away, and then Storm and Bobby came through those doors. Storm was as shocked as Kitty and Piotr had been. Bobby was relieved and gave him another of those brilliant smiles.

John wished he had an actual room with a bed so he could make a move on Bobby, but he couldn't see him being interested in attempting to have sex on the cold floor of the cell.

If Bobby wanted to have sex with him. Which he probably didn't.

Storm turned to Bobby and said something that John couldn't hear, then walked away without saying a word to him. Bobby just walked over to John and wrapped his arms around him, pulling John into an embrace that was equally amazing and awkward.

“Storm said you've proven yourself,” Bobby said into his ear. “She said that as long as I keep an eye on you, you can have a room upstairs instead of going back to the cell.”

John felt like he wanted to collapse. But Bobby's arms were strong around his waist, and he kept him upright. 

A room. Upstairs.

No more prison cell.

John took a deep breath and pulled away from Bobby. “Leaving.”

“What?”

“You asked me what I regret the most. That's what I regret the most. Leaving.”

The smile on Bobby's face made that admission totally worthwhile.

“Come on,” Bobby said, walking towards the elevator. “The room next to mine is empty, so we'll get you set up in there.”

If John stared at his ass in the tight leather X-Men uniform as he followed along behind Bobby, well, that was just a necessity.


	3. Chapter 3

_**day 620.** _

It took one hundred and twenty-seven days of being next-room neighbors, but Bobby _finally_ told him about Rogue. It came while sharing a pint of ice cream in Bobby's room, both of them laying on the bed and laughing about all kinds of stupid things.

She'd gotten the cure because she wanted to be able to touch someone without killing them, which John could understand. He'd felt that deathlike grip before on the day he'd met Bobby's family.

He wondered if Bobby had ever seen his family again. He didn't ask.

And then Bobby had said the thing that he could tell angered him the most. “She's shacked up with some mutant in New Orleans now. He calls himself Gambit. Apparently his powers are totally cool, but she's never actually told me what they are. Which is fine, because I don't care. She can do whatever the fuck she wants.”

He wasn't sure what had surprised him more, what Rogue was up to, or the fact that perfect, clean-cut Bobby Drake had said the word fuck.

And then Bobby had asked the one question he hoped he wouldn't ask. “Did you ever get involved with anyone in the Brotherhood?”

“No,” he answered honestly. “There were a few one night stands with some guys, but otherwise, I lived like a monk.”

If that piece of news shocked Bobby, he didn't let it on. They'd never really had the sexual preference discussion as teenagers. Bobby and Rogue had been convinced that John had a crush on Jubilee, and John had just let them think it.

Instead, Bobby started talking about how lonely he was, because it was difficult to find someone to date when you spent all your time within the walls of the mansion, and John almost interrupted and said he could cure Bobby's loneliness.

Instead he asked if there were any bars in Westchester.

“I don't know,” Bobby answered. “I haven't ever been to one, but then again, I haven't ever been looking for one either.”

“We should go looking then,” John said. “Tell Storm you need a night off and that you're taking me with you. You'll have to buy all the booze because I don't get paid for being here, but it could be fun.”

Which was why on day six hundred and twenty of his captivity, one hundred and twenty-eight days after he'd left the prison cell for a private room, he was in a bar with Bobby Drake sharing a bottle of whiskey.

“This was a great idea,” Bobby said, his words slightly slurring together. They'd only had three glasses worth. Apparently Bobby Drake was a bit of a lightweight.

“You've got to learn to take time for yourself,” John said, his voice relaxed and lazy but far more coherent than Bobby's. “I know that the school and the children are everything to you, but Christ, Bobby, everyone needs a break now and then.”

“That's what visiting you downstairs was,” Bobby said slowly. “That was my break.”

John polished off his glass and reached for the bottle. “You spent your break sitting there staring at me when we wouldn't say two words to each other? Seriously?”

“You were my best friend,” Bobby murmured, leaning back in his chair. “I was curious if John was still in there, or if Pyro was all that was left.”

John glanced around the bar at the mention of his other name, sighing with relief when no one seemed to have heard it. “I wouldn't mention that name outside of the mansion,” he commented. “And you were my best friend too.”

He didn't realize until he said it that it was the truth. Bobby had been his best friend. He'd told Bobby things that he'd never told anyone else, late at night when he was swirling fire around the room and Bobby was freezing it despite the fact they weren't supposed to use their powers in the dorms. He was certain that the Professor had known what they were doing, but since the walls never looked scorched and the floors didn't look water damaged, he was pretty sure that the Professor just let them do whatever they wanted.

Bobby never had judged him for his past. And there was plenty of shit in his past to judge. Powers manifesting as a four-year-old, setting his house on fire in the middle of the night and killing his parents and his younger brother. Going from place to place in the foster care system, sometimes being rejected by foster parents before he could even set foot in their homes because he was listed as a mutant with uncontrollable powers. No one wanted a repeat of what had happened to his own family. He skipped out on the foster care system when he was twelve, talking his way onto a bus to New York City, living off the streets once he was there. 

He'd told Bobby everything that had happened from the moment his powers manifested to the moment the Professor found him, and Bobby had never looked at him differently.

He'd really underestimated how much Bobby cared about him.

He'd really, really underestimated how much he cared about Bobby.

But he wasn't going to do that anymore.

He bummed a cigarette off one of the others in the bar and went out to the alley to smoke it. Bobby appeared a few moments later, leaning up against the wall with him and just watching him smoke. Bobby was drunk and John was tipsy but not tipsy enough to not know what he was doing, and once the cigarette was finished, he switched his position so he was pinning Bobby up against the brick wall.

“If you don't want this,” he said softly, “tell me to stop now.”

Bobby's arms slid around his waist and pulled John even closer. “I've wanted it for longer than you might think.”

His voice wasn't slurred with the effects of alcohol. It was straight and clear, direct and to the point, and with an invitation like that, John couldn't hold back anymore. He leaned forward and brought their lips together, kissing Bobby gently. But Bobby was having none of that, deepening the kiss the moment he had the chance to, and John practically melted in his arms.

It was easily the best kiss of his life.

His hands busied themselves with sliding underneath Bobby's shirt, and he could feel the groan that Bobby made as he began to run his hands along his skin. Bobby's arms tightened around his waist, and when they broke apart for air, Bobby rested his head on John's shoulder.

“This isn't exactly an ideal place to be doing this,” Bobby said after a few moments. “Shall we head back to the mansion?”

John wanted to scream his acquiescence, but instead asked the rational question. “Are you sure you want to continue this?”

Bobby pulled back and looked John straight in the eyes. “I've never been so sure of anything in my life.”

John wasn't going to argue with that. They took a taxi back to the mansion, made sure they were quiet as they made their way upstairs, and then stood outside the doors to their two rooms. John looked over at Bobby and Bobby looked over at John, and then Bobby walked to his door and opened it, crooking his finger and gesturing to John.

The gesture was clear. Come here.

John took a deep breath and followed Bobby into his room.

He never did return to his room that night.


	4. Chapter 4

_**day 856.** _

Storm wanted to talk to him.

Bobby told him that it was fine, that he knew what this was about and it wasn't anything John needed to be afraid of, but John remembered Storm, and John had always been afraid of Storm.

Storm had never cared much for him either, and she hadn't exactly hidden that fact very well.

Bobby squeezed his hand outside the door to Storm's office and then walked away, and John took a few deep breaths before opening the door and going inside.

Storm didn't even bother looking up from her desk. “John, you've been here for awhile now, an—”

“Two years and one hundred and twenty-six days.”

That got Storm to look up. “You've kept track?”

“Of how long I've been in captivity? You bet your ass I have.” John wasn't going to treat her nicely because she had most certainly not treated him nicely.

“The point is you've been here for awhile now, and while I appreciate all the help you've given Bobby around the mansion, I need you to do more.”

More? _More?_ Yeah, Storm was definitely still the hardass he remembered.

“There's an opening. It's a creative writing class. Salaried position, you can keep your room next to Bobby's, you'd only have to teach twice a week. Bobby thinks you'd be perfect for it, and remembering the various stories I used to take from you when you worked on them during class instead of listening to what I had to say, I agree. You're a very talented writer, John, and I think you would suit this class well.”

John's jaw almost dropped. _Almost._ He wouldn't give Storm that satisfaction.

“You want to hire me to be a teacher?”

“Yes.” Storm's head was down concentrating on her paperwork again. “And if you don't want to, that's fine. But either way, your captivity as you put it would be over. You can either take the position or walk out of here a free man. But I know what I would prefer, and I think we both know what Bobby would prefer.”

Which probably meant that Storm knew about him and Bobby and whatever the fuck you wanted to label what they were doing. Shit.

“Bobby and I...I can explain...”

“I don't care,” Storm said seriously. “He's happier now than he was before you. Bobby happy is all I care about.”

“Yeah, 'cause my happiness doesn't matter and never has, right?” The words were out of John's mouth before he could stop them, and Storm's head shot up to look at him again.

“John, I know we had our differences when you were a student here, and I know that the past two years have not exactly been spent mending burnt bridges between us, but I have never wanted you not to be happy. After the life you've had, all I could possibly wish for was happiness for you. I thought you found that with Magneto, but Bobby tells me that I'm wrong about that. I'm glad I'm wrong about that. I'm glad you regret things you did. It shows me that the John who first showed up here still exists. And from the moment the Professor told me about that John, I've wanted nothing but happiness for you.”

John was speechless. So Storm kept talking.

“The Professor took it hard when you left. He really thought that you were going to end up one of the X-Men someday. He thought you and Bobby fighting side by side would be good, that you'd make a good team. I think he was right about you and Bobby making a good team. The Professor was very fond of you, John. Most everyone here was.”

“Except for you.” No reason to lie about it now.

“You took some getting used to,” Storm said. “And, I will admit, I've always been a little afraid of flames. So when the Professor told me you were pyrokinetic and had no control of it, it scared me. I never should have treated you in any way that was different from any other student, but I did, and for that, I apologize.”

“So let me get this straight,” John started. “You not only want to end my captivity but you want me to teach a creative writing class and get paid for it, and you're apologizing to me for the way you treated me when I was a kid?” He laughed. “Did you hit your head on something?”

Storm smiled at him. “I suppose it would seem that way to you, but no, John, I didn't. You've proven yourself over and over since I allowed Bobby to take you out of that holding cell, and as far as I'm concerned you don't need to prove yourself any more.”

John stood there for a moment before nodding. “Yes, I'll teach the class. I highly doubt I would ever be able to pass a background check to work anywhere else in the world.”

“About that,” Storm said, turning back to her paperwork. “It's all been taken care of.”

Now John was confused. “Excuse me?”

Storm set down her pen and put her hands on the desk. “Kitty.”

“What about Kitty?”

“She apparently had lots of conversations with Bobby about you and what would happen to you if I ever decided to let you go. So one day she told me that she took care of it. There's not a single piece of paper or government file left that has the name John Allerdyce on it. All they know about is some kid named Pyro.”

He needed to track down Kitty the moment this conversation was over and give her a hug. A very lengthy, very big, very appreciative hug. And make sure that Piotr didn't see it.

“Do you still want to teach the class?” Storm asked after a few moments.

“Yes,” John said.

“Then you start at the beginning of next semester. Get your lesson plans in order until then. And if you hurt Bobby, I swear to God, I will electrocute you with lightning.”

Ah, Storm the hardass was back. That was more like it.

“I don't plan on hurting him.”

“Good. Now get out of my office.”

“Gladly.”

John walked out of the office and wandered down the hall to where Bobby was teaching. He stopped in the doorway and waited until he'd caught Bobby's gaze, then fixed a grin at him. Bobby just grinned back. He left as soon as the students noticed he was in the doorway and headed back to his room. 

He was going to be a teacher. His captivity was over. He was actually going to get paid for doing something. 

God, Bobby's classes needed to be done like five minutes ago. There was some celebratory sex to be had.

He was a free man.


	5. Chapter 5

_**day 1034.** _

He was a competent teacher.

He hadn't thought he would be, had had plenty of conversations with Bobby about how terrifying the prospect of being responsible for someone's education was, but it had been one hundred and fifty days since he taught his first class, and he was a competent teacher.

It helped that the class was about creative writing, because he didn't think he'd be able to teach something like math or biology without wanting to take a power drill to his temple. But he'd come up with assignments and lesson plans and a grading system that Bobby didn't understand but his students did, and Storm had even told him what a good job he was doing. 

And if Storm was saying that, then he must be doing something right.

He was doing something right with Bobby too. They'd long ago abandoned the pretense of them having separate rooms, and though John's room was still technically next door to Bobby's, most of his stuff now had places of their own in Bobby's room. He'd talked Bobby into going with him to the nearest mall so he could buy some clothes and other things, and then when they got back, Bobby had brought out boxes full of all the stuff John had left behind when he'd gone with Magneto.

John wanted to ask why they'd kept it. He didn't because he already knew the answer.

Everyone had hoped he'd come home someday.

They'd never put a label on what it was that they were doing with each other. Kitty teased them about being boyfriends and Piotr laughed at Kitty's teasing. Logan acknowledged it with a “I hope you know what you're doing Bobby,” then abandoned the subject all together. And Storm, well, Storm had already made her feelings on the subject clear.

Whatever it was, the whole school knew about it, and if anyone had a problem with it, they didn't dare say a word. They were too scared of Professor Allerdyce and they had too much respect for Professor Drake.

Professor Allerdyce and Professor Drake. God, that sounded so weird.

It had been around day nine hundred – he didn't even know why he was keeping track anymore, but he was – that Bobby had pressed a Zippo into his hand, then led him outside and into the woods behind the house. John flicked it on and felt fire in his hands for the first time in such a long time, and he let it swirl around him and Bobby, enjoying the way the warmth spread through him as the flames moved.

Then Bobby had frozen the flames, and it was like old times. John made flames dance around them; Bobby froze them solid. And they laughed and laughed and eventually found themselves in each other's arms, lips pressed together, flames slowly melting a sheet of ice above them, making it softly rain. 

It was arguably the most romantic thing he'd ever experienced.

And now they were laying on top of their bed, coming down from the high that only sex can give, Bobby's thumb gently rubbing circles onto the top of John's hand. The radio was playing soft music in the background, and he couldn't remember ever being so intimate with someone.

“What's your full name?” Bobby asked out of nowhere, and John turned his head to look at him.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because I don't know,” Bobby said, glancing over at him, “and I feel like I should.”

“Well what's yours?”

“Robert Thomas Drake. Stop avoiding the question.”

John turned his attention back to the ceiling. “Mine's ridiculous.”

“I still want to know what it is.”

“John's not my first name,” he said after a minute. “It's my middle name.”

“So what's your first name then?”

“Promise you won't laugh?”

“I promise.”

John took a deep breath. “Saint.”

“Saint?”

“Saint. That's me, Saint John Allerdyce.”

“Your parents named you Saint.”

“That they did,” John said, taking another deep breath. “I was born on St. John's Day. So they decided to name me after him. They were rather religious people, from what I remember. It's not much of a memory, but I remember that. I've always gone by John, especially once I was on my own. I'd never make anyone call me Saint. Lord knows I'm far from one.”

Bobby rolled over and settled himself along John's side, putting his head on his chest. “While I agree you aren't a saint, you're not what's going through your head right now either.”

“And you've suddenly become a telepath?”

“No,” Bobby said, sighing. “I just know you. You're thinking about all the stuff you did with the Brotherhood. But you're not that man anymore, John. We both know that.”

“Do you want me to apologize again? Because we both know I could apologize every day for the rest of our lives and it wouldn't be enough.”

“This isn't about trying to get you to apologize,” Bobby said, slinging an arm across John's waist. “It's about trying to make you realize that you've changed.”

“I haven't changed, Bobby. I've just stopped doing stupid shit and taking orders from a madman.” 

Bobby shifted around until he could look at John. “You've changed. The John I knew as a teenager never would have stayed here after he graduated. You would have been long gone, and you never would have come back. Now, you were offered the chance to leave, and instead you stayed.”

“I stayed for you,” John said softly, running his fingers through Bobby's hair. “Not because I was interested in becoming a professor or because I felt I owed something to Storm. I only stayed because of you.”

Bobby leaned up and kissed John softly. “I love you, you know.”

“I love you too,” John murmured.

They'd never said that to one another before, but somehow that moment just felt right.

Bobby settled down next to him again and John started running his fingers through his hair again. Maybe Bobby was right. Maybe he had changed. Maybe Pyro was gone for good and Professor Allerdyce was now in his place.

The radio suddenly interrupted the music with a special bulletin, and they both laid there and listened to the newsman announce that the House of Representatives had passed the Mutant Registration Act. It would now pass to the Senate, who were expected to pass the bill next week. After both branches approved it, it would be sent to the president's desk to be signed, and the president had made it clear that he would not veto the bill if it passed.

The music came back on and Bobby sighed heavily. “There will be another Brotherhood attack now. We'll have to go fight them if we can figure out where it is before it happens.”

“Let me help,” John said, and Bobby sat up.

“John...”

“I know I'm not one of the X-Men,” John said. “But no one around here knows the Brotherhood better than I do. Talk to Storm about it if you have to, but let me help.”

Bobby nodded and climbed off the bed, finding his pants among the mess on the floor. John watched as he slowly got dressed, refusing to move until it was absolutely necessary. Bobby slipped out of the door a few minutes later, and John forced himself off the bed, putting on discarded clothes and heading into the en suite to make sure he looked presentable.

Maybe Pyro wasn't gone for good after all.


	6. Chapter 6

_**day 1045.** _

“I'm going to testify in front of Congress again,” Bobby had said. “Do you want to go to D.C. with me?”

He'd really wanted to make some smart remark about how Bobby fancied himself a new Jean Grey. He didn't.

“Sure,” he'd said. “A few days away would be nice. But why are you testifying before Congress? And what do you mean again?”

Apparently Bobby Drake was something of a mutant activist. He'd never mentioned it before.

He'd testified before the House before; now he was testifying before the Senate Committee for Mutant Affairs, which was just the fancy name for the group of senators that wanted to pass the Mutant Registration Act. Apparently there was only one senator on the entire committee that thought the Act was a bad idea. Of course, that had been the senator who invited Bobby to testify.

“Dr. McCoy will be there,” Bobby had said. “It'll be fun.”

Only Bobby Drake could think testifying before Congress or hanging out with the UN Ambassador would be fun. He'd seen photographs of Beast. He did not fit the description of fun. Plus, from what he'd gotten out of Kitty, Beast had been the one who hit Magneto with the cure. He wasn't sure the man would take too kindly to being in the presence of Magneto's right hand man.

But Bobby said that everything had been explained to Dr. McCoy – as Bobby continually referred to him as, probably because Dr. Hank McCoy, UN Ambassador sounded a lot better than Beast, UN Ambassador – and that he wouldn't harm a hair on John's head or Bobby would freeze him solid. He'd sounded more than a little possessive when he'd said it, and if John tackled Bobby to the bed and had his way with him after that, well, it was just necessary.

Before they left, John gave his class a simple assignment. “Write somewhere between three and five thousand words on what you think a human's reaction to a child of theirs revealing they were a mutant would be. Use your own situation as an inspiration if it fits, but do not write a carbon copy of your story. This is _creative_ writing, not exposition writing.”

He was pretty sure most of his students now hated him.

He didn't dare admit that he was trying to gauge how the concept would work in a longer format. He also refused to admit that he'd begun preparations for writing the novel he'd always dreamed of on the brand new laptop he'd bought, no matter how much Bobby teased him about how much he was using the damned thing. Some of his fondest memories of the mansion from when he was a student were sneaking into the computer lab late at night, leaving the lights off, and just sitting at one of the computers and writing. 

Not that he'd admit to having fond memories of being at the mansion as a student either. There were a lot of things he would never admit to, not even to Bobby.

They took the train down to D.C. instead of driving down or taking a plane because Bobby said that it would be nicer that way. John joked that the Amtrak train they got on was nothing more than a glorified, above ground subway train. Bobby was not amused. He just sat in his seat and got out all his notes and started pouring over them, so John got his laptop out of his bag and set it up, then started typing away, getting thoughts and scenarios for the novel out of his head.

He didn't notice when Bobby started to look at the screen and read what he was typing until Bobby asked who Clementine was.

John immediately shut the laptop and looked over at him. “Are you reading what I'm writing?”

“Maybe,” Bobby said defensively. “Who's Clementine? Is there a Clementine in one of your classes? I certainly don't have a Clementine in one of mine unless I know her by her mutant name.”

“No, there's no Clementine,” John said after a moment. “She's a fictional character.”

“A fictional character?” Bobby stared at him for a moment before his eyes went wide. “You're writing your novel!”

John sighed and nodded. “I haven't actually started writing yet. I'm just in the planning stages. But Clementine is one of my main characters.”

“You're writing about mutants?”

“What would you expect me to write about? Them?”

Bobby sighed. “You can call them humans, John.”

“Yeah, and they could treat us equally and not go through with this mutant registration shit.” John hadn't really needed to make his feelings on the Mutant Registration Act clear. Bobby had known them ever since the first time they'd heard the words Mutant Registration Act as teenagers.

“They're just scared.”

“You sound like the Professor right now.”

“The Professor was a wise man.”

“So was Magneto.”

“Says the man who was calling him a madman a few days ago.”

John took a deep breath. “I don't want to argue with you. We're on the same side in this.”

“We're not arguing,” Bobby said defensively. “I know we are. But something tells me that instead of testifying before Congress, you'd rather burn it down.”

“I have put my days of murdering people long behind me,” John said seriously. “Does that take away the initial urge to prove my point with use of my powers? No. Do I think anyone on this committee is going to listen to a single word you or Beast say to them? I'm sorry, but no. We're going to get stuck with this registration shit, and when that happens, it's going to be more than the Brotherhood you'll be trying to stop. Mark my words on that.”

Bobby sat back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you trying to tell me that I'm going to be fighting you again?”

“No, I'm not. I'm just trying to make sure that you're realistic about what's going to happen. You think there were protests about the cure? That's going to be nothing compared to the registration bullshit.”

“Well, at least there won't be a clinic for you to firebomb this time.”

John inhaled sharply and Bobby looked over at him with apologetic eyes. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It just came out. God, John, I'm sorry.”

They'd talked about that day. They'd talked about that day a lot.

“Fucking Christ, Bobby, do I need to apologize again? Or would you like me to walk into the FBI offices while we're here and announce who I am?”

Bobby reached for John and pulled him close, kissing him softly. “I'm sorry. Please believe me. Please.”

It took a few minutes, and several kisses from Bobby, but John eventually nodded. “I believe you. And I'm sorry, once again, for what I did. And don't tell me not to apologize either. I should be apologizing every second of the rest of my life for the shit I did.”

“No,” Bobby said, running his fingers through John's hair, smiling at the fact that it was almost as long as it had been when they were teenagers. “You don't need to apologize anymore.”

“Yes, I do,” John said, leaning into the touch. “I'll apologize every night before bed.”

“Then you might have to start sleeping in your room again, because I really don't want to hear it,” Bobby murmured, reaching towards the laptop with his free hand and reopening it. “Tell me about your novel.”

John closed the laptop again, nudging Bobby's hand with his head when Bobby tried to move his hand away. He rested his head on Bobby's shoulder and started talking, and Bobby interrupted him a few times to ask questions, but John didn't mind. They just made him think about the universe that existed in his head more.

By the time they reached D.C., John had Clementine's love interest all worked out. Clementine was fire. Alexander would be ice.


	7. Chapter 7

_**day 1126.** _

The Mutant Registration Act was law.

The Brotherhood had been quiet. Too quiet.

No one in the mansion took this to mean there wouldn't be retaliation. There were already protests going on outside every registration site in the country. Beast – or Dr. McCoy as Bobby continued to call him – had resigned from his office in the wake of the Act becoming law. Worried parents were contacting the school every day wondering what to do. Some pulled their children out of the school altogether.

Professor Allerdyce was worried. Pyro wanted to act.

Whoever was running the Brotherhood now was an idiot in John's eyes, because they hadn't changed the communication system at all. John was monitoring every message sent back and forth, had seen every plan they had tried to solidify, had seen it all fall apart as they realized how much they needed Magneto and Pyro.

There was part of him that wanted to send out a message just to deliver a smartass remark about how much they needed Pyro now, but thought they didn't when he'd first been captured.

The part of him that was now prevalent reported every failed plan to Bobby, who dutifully delivered the news to Storm and the rest of the X-Men, until Storm requested that John inform them himself.

It was another act of inclusion on Storm's part, and as much as John wanted to believe that she actually wanted to make amends for all the shit she'd done when he was a student, he still couldn't think of her as anything but a hardass who hated him.

And then, eleven hundred and twenty-six days since he'd first woken up in the mansion, a message went out to the Brotherhood from an account that shouldn't be active that scared the shit out of him.

_Metal is manipulated once more._

He took his laptop and ran out of his class, up the stairs, and all the way down the hall to Storm's office. He was panting so hard by the time he got there that he could barely get out the words he desperately needed to tell her.

“Magneto is back. How the hell is that possible?”

Storm looked shocked. She just sat there and stared at him and John didn't know what else to say.

Then Beast started talking, and John about jumped out of his skin, because he hadn't even realized that he was in the room.

“There were rumors,” he started. “I tried to get someone at Mutant Affairs to verify them for me, but after the Act became law and the department was disbanded, it was hard to get reliable information from anyone. The rumors were that Worthington's research hadn't gone far enough, that given an unspecified amount of time, on a powerful enough mutant, the cure would wear off. If Magneto truly is back, then I would be willing to say that those rumors were true.”

“Why the fuck are you just telling us about this now?” Storm burst out with. “We needed to be prepared for this, Hank!”

“We are,” Beast said, looking over at John. “We've got him.”

John looked at him like he was crazy. “Excuse me?”

“You don't think Magneto is going to want you back once he realizes how pathetic the leadership of the Brotherhood has become?” Beast said. “We can send you in there, have you reporting back to us with everything you learn. A double agent, if you will. A member of the Brotherhood, and a member of the X-Men.”

“No,” John said automatically. “I'm not doing that. I'm not leaving here. I'm not going back to that life. And I'm not a member of the X-Men.”

“You are,” Storm said, her voice softer. “If you want to be.”

The laptop slid out of John's hands and hit the floor, and he should have been worried about that if it wasn't for the fact that he'd just been invited to join the X-Men when he'd spent most of his young adulthood extremely willing to kill the X-Men.

“You're not serious.”

“I am.”

John shook his head and picked up the laptop off the floor. “I don't know if that's a good idea. And I definitely don't think Beast's idea is a good idea.”

“Think about it,” Storm said. “But remember what I said about you and Bobby making a very good team.”

“I'll keep monitoring the conversation,” John said, walking out of Storm's office and making his way back to his class. The students were all curious as to why he'd gone running out of the room so suddenly, but John kept quiet. There was no reason to worry them until he had a solid, tangible reason to.

He taught the rest of his class in a daze, sure that he was sounding like an idiot and probably looked like one too, gave them some easy bullshit assignment for homework, and sent them on their way. Bobby wandered into his classroom a few minutes after the students had left, and he pulled John into his arms.

“I heard about Beast's idea.”

Oh, now he was Beast.

“I told him and Storm there was no way I was letting you do that. I may have threatened to turn him into a blue popsicle.”

“I'm not doing it,” John murmured into Bobby's neck. “I don't care what he said. I'm not fucking doing it.”

“I know. I know.” Bobby paused for a moment. “I also heard about Storm's offer. I wasn't surprised. She's been very impressed with your commitment to our cause.”

“I was shocked.”

“I thought you might have been,” Bobby said, slowly running a hand up and down John's back. “But I think it's a good idea.”

“I get the honor of it,” John started. “To carry on the Professor's legacy, to fight for what we believe in, to stop the Brotherhood from doing something catastrophically stupid, but I don't think I can do it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don't deserve it.”

Bobby pulled John away from him until he could look him in the eye. “Listen to me. Yes you do.”

“No, I really don't.” John sighed and pulled free of Bobby's embrace. “I've got to do something. If it works, I'll tell you about it. If it doesn't, I'll tell you about it anyway. But I need to be alone to do it.”

Bobby just nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. John walked back to his desk and pulled the laptop in front of him, then began to compose a simple message.

_I know you're watching, Raven._

It wasn't long until he got one in return.

_I'm surprised you are. Heard you were all cozy with Iceman now. Didn't expect you to be monitoring this._

John took a deep breath.

_You know why I am. You turning blue yet?_

Mystique had always liked him. He was counting on that still being the fact.

_Of course. So what do you want?_

Perfect.

_He's back._

The response was almost instant.

_I saw. He abandoned you the same way he abandoned me, didn't he?_

John felt a smile cross his face.

_I was in various states of captivity here without so much as a word from him or the Brotherhood. And he had to have known I was here. Has to know that I'm still here._

The response took a bit longer this time, but it still came.

_You want me to infiltrate the Brotherhood, don't you? Proclaim my allegiance to him and report back to you._

Mystique was far more intelligent than Magneto ever gave her credit for.

_Maybe._

It took awhile for the response to come, but when it did, John started to grin.

_Did I ever tell you how close Charles and I were once?_

Yes, she absolutely had.

_That's why I'm asking you to do this._

Please. Please do this for me.

_I'm in. Give me a few days. Keep monitoring. I'll send you a message once I'm back where I don't belong._

Thank fucking Christ.

_I will. And Raven? Thanks._

The last message he got just made him laugh.

_You owe me. Again._

He typed his final message and then closed the laptop.

_I know._

He sat there for a moment before picking up the laptop and leaving the classroom, going upstairs and into the room he shared with Bobby, because he just knew that's where Bobby would be.

“Well?” Bobby asked as soon as the door was shut.

John just smiled at him. “Did I ever tell you about my friendship with Mystique?”

It took Bobby a moment, and then he broke out into a brilliant smile. “Well, we should go tell Storm about our new informant.”

John just nodded.


	8. Chapter 8

_**day 1142.** _

It had been five hundred and twenty-two days since the first time he had sex with Bobby Drake, and John was somewhat surprised that the urgency hadn't abandoned them. He'd never really had a relationship like the one he had with Bobby before, but he had assumed that over time the urgency would mellow out, replaced by the knowledge that sex was coming and there really wasn't a need to rush into it.

Yet still nearly every time they came together, even with the predetermined knowledge that they were about to have sex, they couldn't kiss each other enough, couldn't get their clothes off fast enough, couldn't actually have sex enough to satisfy themselves. They'd learned to live on little sleep, because one round just wasn't enough. It took more than that to satiate them. 

Between all the sex they'd been having, and all the monitoring of the Brotherhood that John had been doing, he was lucky he wasn't falling asleep in his classes. The Brotherhood's communication channel always seemed to be at its busiest in the middle of the night.

Bobby was in the middle of trying to coax John into another round when John's laptop started dinging every few seconds, and Bobby sighed heavily as John rolled away from him and reached out for it. “God, I wish you'd turn that thing off.”

“You know why I can't,” John responded, opening it and bringing up the messages. He stared at it for a moment before the sex-induced haze around his brain subsided and he could begin to process the information he was reading.

The Brotherhood finally had a plan.

John fell silent as he read through the messages that had gone out to the Brotherhood as a whole and to John himself from Mystique. Bobby stared at him as John sat up straight, putting the laptop on the bed and running his hands through his hair.

“What is it?”

“They found the supercomputer that houses the registry,” John said, his voice shaky. “They'd mentioned finding it before, but they always thought it was in D.C. with the government. It's not. It's in a warehouse in a small Indiana town in Elkhart County called Middlebury. Population is about thirty-five hundred. They're planning a siege.”

“Of the warehouse?”

“Yes,” John said, looking over at Bobby. “There's also talk about other things.”

“What kind of other things?”

“Magneto hasn't put out an order, but some of the higher ups, they want to raise the town to the ground to make their point.”

Bobby swallowed hard and sat up. “Do they have enough mutants to do that?”

“We had enough to storm Alcatraz over the cure,” John said, leaning into Bobby's touch when his hand threaded through the back of John's hair. “There's been protests all over the country, Bobby. If they think they can raise a town of that size to the ground, they have enough numbers to do it.”

“What does Mystique say?”

“She said we have three days to figure out how to stop them. They attack on the fourth.”

Bobby took a deep breath. “Did she say anything more than that?”

“Yes,” John said, his voice shaking again. “She said please. Please stop them. Bobby, there's six of you. The Brotherhood messages went out to a thousand different accounts, and a lot of those will just be the head of a community of members, not individual members.”

“Seven,” Bobby murmured. “There's seven of us.”

John let his eyes close as he took a deep breath. “I still don't know if I can do this. I don't deserve that uniform.”

“You said you wanted to help,” Bobby started. “And you've been amazing with the monitoring of communications and with enlisting Mystique to help, but we can't fight them without you, John. We need your help.”

John shuddered. “The moment Magneto realizes I'm there, he'll try to kill me.”

“I know,” Bobby said softly. “But you're more than capable of defending yourself. You've proven that in the Danger Room sessions we've been doing.”

“That's against holograms,” John said, looking over at him. “No offense, but that's nothing compared to an actual fight against the Brotherhood.”

“I know,” Bobby soothed. “But you still can do this.”

John leaned over to Bobby and kissed him hard. “We should go wake Storm up.”

“In the morning,” Bobby whispered, reaching for the laptop and closing it. “Move it and come here.”

John carefully set the laptop on the floor and turned to Bobby, kissing him. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I am,” Bobby said, pulling John back down on the bed and crawling on top of him, kissing him hard and deep. “You need this. You need to take your mind off of the Brotherhood for awhile.”

John moaned as Bobby began to nip and suck at the nape of his neck. “I don't know if I can do that. They attack in four days, Bobby. Four days.”

Bobby ground his hips down against John's, drawing delicious moans from him. “You're too coherent. I need to do better.”

John reached up and pulled Bobby into a kiss, rolling them over so he was on top, and then he gave himself over to Bobby for awhile.

Later, when John felt like he could breathe again and Bobby was snoring softly behind him, he reached for the laptop and opened it. There was another message sitting in his inbox, but it wasn't a standard Brotherhood message, and it wasn't from Mystique.

He took a deep breath and opened it, then stared at the words written there for a long while.

_You disappointed me at Alcatraz. You can make it up to me in Middlebury. Draw the X-Men there, and then betray them like you did before. I will shelter you as always. You've built up decent cover there, Pyro, but now is time for you to blow it._

Magneto.

The message didn't really surprise him. He'd been expecting some sort of message from him ever since he had reappeared. And of course he would assume that John had developed his place in the mansion as a means of cover, that he would always be loyal to him and the Brotherhood, and that now the time had come to blow that cover and betray the people whose trust he had worked so hard to regain.

He glanced behind him at Bobby before sliding out of bed, reaching for his clothes and tugging them on. He picked up the laptop and quietly left the room, heading downstairs and into the kitchen. He set the laptop down on the counter and got the ice cream out of the freezer, then sat down and started to eat while still staring at the message.

He knew what he had to do.

He also knew that Bobby would never go along with it.

Another message showed up in his inbox before he could reply, and the moment he saw it was from Mystique, he opened it.

_I know about the message he sent. Don't listen to him, John. Don't fuck up the life you've made for yourself. I'm out now. He thinks it's to scout out the warehouse. It's really to go tell my contacts in the government. Get the X-Men there and I'll make sure you have plenty of backup. But John, don't do something stupid just because you think you need to. Remember who you are now. You're so much more than just his lackey. You're so much more than just Pyro._

John took a deep breath and set his spoon down. As per usual, Mystique knew exactly what he was thinking, and exactly how to talk him back from the edge of the bridge.

If it hadn't have been for her, Pyro would have done a hell of a lot more stupid shit than he already did.

He didn't delete the message from Magneto, but he did delete the message from Mystique just like he always did right after he read them. He didn't need there to be someone who could get into his account from the Brotherhood's end and read the messages he exchanged with Raven. He knew she had done the same. 

Bobby walked into the kitchen at that moment, taking one look at John before shaking his head. “You got up for ice cream without me?”

“The ice cream wasn't planned,” John murmured. “Mystique's abandoning ship. She's going to her contacts in the government and getting us backup for Middlebury. Magneto thinks she's gone to scout the warehouse. He also thinks I'm going to betray the X-Men and side with him once we're there.”

Bobby stopped with his hand reaching towards the melting ice cream and looked over at John. “Why does he think that?”

John pulled up the message and spun the laptop around so Bobby could read it. After a minute, he said, “He's wrong. I'm not betraying you.”

“I know,” Bobby murmured, walking around the counter and wrapping his arms around John. “I know.”

John sat there in Bobby's embrace for a few moments. “I'll need my flame throwers. The Zippo won't be fast enough.”

“They're downstairs,” Bobby said, drawing John into a kiss. “You won't regret this.”

“I might,” John whispered. “I just might.”


	9. Chapter 9

_**day 1150.** _

All he felt was pain. Pain everywhere. He didn't remember what had caused him the pain; all he knew was that he was in severe pain.

And then a cool hand slipped into his, and he took a painful breath before opening his eyes.

He could tell immediately that he was downstairs at the mansion. A quick glance to his right confirmed what he already knew. Bobby was sitting next to him, holding his hand. He had a vicious looking gash along the left side of his head, but it was expertly stitched and the blood that must have been there had been cleaned away.

It took Bobby a moment to realize that John was awake, but when he did, he immediately stood up and bent over him, kissing his lips softly. “Hi.”

“What happened?” John said slowly, his voice hoarse from lack of use. “Why do I feel like I was run over by a truck?”

Bobby stroked John's face gently. “Because Magneto threw one at you when you didn't betray us? Do you really not remember this?”

“Last thing I remember is landing in Middlebury.” John shook his head and groaned as pain radiated down his spine. “How injured am I?”

“Pretty badly,” Bobby said, worry evident in his voice. “Lots of broken bones and gashes. Like I said, you had an actual truck thrown at you. Logan and Beast got it off of you pretty quickly. Not quickly enough for my liking, but there wasn't much I could do about it at the time. It knocked you out, but I didn't think it would make you forget most of the fight. You were amazing.”

John sighed as Bobby kissed him again, squeezing his hand in return. “Did we win?”

“Most of the town remained unharmed. We protected the supercomputer,” Bobby murmured, brushing a lock of John's hair from his face. “Magneto and most of the Brotherhood leadership got away. A lot of arrests were made by the police and military that was there backing us up. But then we got back here, and found out that Mystique had hacked into the supercomputer and erased the whole thing.”

John nodded as best as he could. “That doesn't surprise me. She never told me that she was going to do it, but that really doesn't surprise me.”

“It didn't surprise Beast either,” Bobby said. “He's been fielding calls from the new Democratic nominee for president. One of the first things he wants to do as president is repeal the Mutant Registration Act. He wants Beast to be part of the campaign. I'm not sure if he's going to do it or not yet. But that's not the important thing now. The important thing is for you to heal. The hospital didn't want to discharge you, but Storm was insistent that we'd be able to take care of you.”

John heard a door open and then a voice he thought he'd never hear again echoed through the room. “Bobby, Storm's looking for you.”

“Rogue?” John asked, looking directly at Bobby. Bobby just nodded.

“The cure wore off,” Bobby said softly, then looked away as Rogue came up on John's left. “Tell Storm I'll talk to her later. John's awake.”

“Hi John,” Rogue said, her southern accent more pronounced than he remembered it being. “It's good to see you awake.”

A gloved hand slipped into his left hand and squeezed it softly, and for as much as John wanted to remember how he'd considered Rogue a friend back in the days when he'd felt nothing but friendship for Bobby Drake, right now he really, really wanted to burn her alive.

She'd hurt Bobby, and that was not acceptable.

John opened his mouth to speak when another voice drifted into the room, distinctly Cajun in nature. A brilliant smile crossed Rogue's face as a man he'd never seen before came up along her side, and John took a mental sigh of relief when he realized this must be Gambit. Still, he asked the question in the only way Rogue would recognize.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“John,” Rogue said, shaking her head but keeping the smile on her face.

“Remy LeBeau,” the man said. “But you can call me Gambit. Glad to see you're awake. You looked like you were in pretty bad shape when they brought you in here.”

John looked over at Bobby, confused.

“They were here when we got back,” Bobby explained. “They've been looking after the children with Logan while the rest of us recover.”

John took that in for a minute. “We all got injured?”

“To some extent,” Bobby said, turning his head so John got a better look at his stitches. “It looks worse than it was.”

“It looks fucking horrible,” John said, trying to lift his arm towards it before hissing in pain and stopping that movement. “How many fucking broken bones do I have?”

“Both your legs, your right arm, your right shoulder blade, your right collarbone,” Bobby murmured. “You got hit in the right with the truck. You'd turned a second earlier to send some fire at someone coming at me.”

John recognized the tone of Bobby's voice and he sighed. “Did the motherfucker harm you?”

“No.”

“Then it was worth it.”

“I sent two of you down here to get him, and no one brings him to me?” Storm's voice suddenly echoed down the hallway, and Gambit turned and jogged to the door.

“Sorry, Storm, but the guy's awake.”

A few moments later, Storm came up on John's left, arms wrapped in bandages and smiling down at him. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit,” John answered honestly. “Anyone have some painkillers?”

“I'll send for the nurse,” Storm said, smiling at him again. “It's good to see you awake, John. Bobby, when you have a moment, I need to talk to you about a couple of things.”

“Thanks,” John said, watching as Storm walked away before turning to Bobby. “Why didn't you tell me I burned her?”

Bobby sighed. “Because you didn't mean to. And she knows that. The fire went out of control when the truck hit you.”

John let his eyes slip closed as he tried to remember what happened, groaning when he couldn't access the memory. “How bad is my concussion?”

“Bad enough that you're not moving for awhile,” the nurse – John never had bothered to learn her name – said as she walked into the room. “I hear someone requested painkillers?”

“Fuck yes,” John said, squeezing Bobby's hand again. “Anything to make this pain go away.”

“Well, I probably can't make the pain go away,” the nurse said, opening up some cabinets and getting the things she needed. “But I can make it better and make you go back to sleep.”

“I don't want to go back to sleep,” John murmured.

“Don't be difficult,” Bobby said. “You will be much better if you are sleeping.”

“Because you're a doctor now?”

“No, because that's what the hospital said. 'Keep him sedated.' Why do you think you've pretty much been unconscious for two days?”

“Rogue, if you could move out of the way, dear,” the nurse said, walking up to John with a syringe. “You're going to fall asleep again. It's just part of having this much medication in you. The only way to keep you awake right now is to give you much less effective painkillers, which you would not enjoy. Trust me.”

“Fine,” John said, watching as the nurse stuck the needle into his IV and injected the medicine. 

“Rogue, darlin',” came Gambit's voice. “Logan's lookin' for you.”

“I'll see you later, John,” Rogue said, her voice fading away as she moved away from him.

The nurse patted John on the arm. “There we go. Don't fight off the sleep. Sleep will be good for you.”

“Whatever,” John murmured as she walked away. A few moments passed and he could hear the door closing, squeezing Bobby's hand once it was shut. “Kiss me?”

Bobby bent down and kissed him softly, and John shook his head lightly when he pulled away. “I said motherfucking kiss me Bobby. I'm not Rogue.”

Bobby rolled his eyes but bent down and capture John's lips in a hard kiss. John fought back against him, trying to keep it going for as long as he could, but Bobby pulled away far too soon for his liking.

“Are you going to get all possessive now that you know Rogue is here?”

“Are you going to be mad at me if I do?”

Bobby smiled. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“She hurt you,” John said seriously. “I can't forgive her for that.”

“Yes you can and you will,” Bobby said, equally as seriously. “I have forgiven her, and she's happy for us, just like I am happy for her and Gambit.”

“She ever tell you what his power is?”

“He can mentally create, control, and manipulate kinetic energy,” Bobby said, laughing slightly. “She was right; it is pretty cool.”

“Yours are better,” John said, smiling.

“I'm not sure about that,” Bobby said, sitting down next to John's bed. “Though I am rather partial to mine.”

“Yours are perfect,” John said softly. “Ours are perfect for each other. I'm sorry I can't remember it. I imagine we were a pretty good team.”

“The best,” Bobby said, bending down to kiss John's hand. “You should sleep.”

“Okay,” John said, letting his eyes slip closed. “But only if you stay with me.”

“I'm not going anywhere.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, so bryan singer's explanation of how charles gets back into his body is not really an explanation at all, and rather sucks, so i came up with my own. so, yeah. whatever.

_**day 1204.** _

His right arm was in a sling, both of his legs had casts on them, and he was essentially isolated to the room that he shared with Bobby. His class was being taught by Kitty, even if he was the one still providing the assignments and grading the papers. Storm had offered him the Professor's old wheelchair to get around in until he could walk again, but there was no fucking way he was going to do that, and his reasons had nothing to do with the fact that the wheelchair belonged to the Professor.

But none of that was John's biggest problem.

John's biggest problem was that no matter how much they wanted it, and no matter how much they'd tried, he couldn't have sex with Bobby because of the extreme pain he was still in.

And he really, really needed to have sex with Bobby.

Rogue was still around, and though she had Gambit with her practically every second that John had seen of her, he knew from listening to Bobby that Rogue was spending a lot of time with him. 

John had never claimed not to be a jealous person.

Deep down, he knew it was ridiculous. Rogue had Gambit, and well, given the choice of himself or Rogue, John knew who he'd choose. And he knew who Bobby would choose too, because he had. He'd chosen John. 

But it had also been ridiculous to have been jealous of Bobby Drake's seemingly perfect family, even after his asshole of a kid brother had called the fucking cops on them. It had also been ridiculous to have been jealous of Dr. Grey and Mr. Summers – and why the fuck he still thought of them that way, he didn't know – because they had found something in each other that John had always craved. 

It had been three years and one hundred and four days since he'd first woken up in the mansion, and it was ridiculous to still be jealous of the people for whom it had always been home, who hadn't abandoned it the way he had for a life that he had grown to despise. He could never have his time with the Brotherhood back, so thinking about all the ways his life would be different had he not gotten on that helicopter were absolutely ridiculous.

But John was by himself most of the day, and he could only sleep so much, and usually when he was left alone with his thoughts, ridiculous ones started to overtake him. 

Bobby walked into the room a moment later, and John was about to say something to him when he noticed Bobby was not wearing the clothes that he'd been wearing when he'd left the room about twenty minutes earlier. So he started to laugh.

“That's the only way you think you can come visit me?”

He watched as Bobby faded away, the recognizable blue skin and red hair taking its place. “I don't know how welcome I am around here,” Mystique said. “Thought it best to disguise myself.”

“Get over here, Raven,” John said, tapping the bed next to him.

Mystique came over and sat on the bed next to him, looking around the room. “My room here didn't look all that different from this one.”

“I think they all look pretty much the same.”

“No, they're different,” she said. “Maybe more to my eye than yours, but I grew up here. You didn't.”

“I should have,” John said, leaning his head back against the wall. “I never should have left.”

“Sometimes, I think I never should have left either,” Mystique said, reaching over and gently moving John's arm. “How's it healing?”

“Too slowly for my liking,” John murmured. “Can't do a motherfucking thing.”

“And you actually miss what you do here?”

“Yes,” John said. “I actually do. How did you know I was injured anyway?”

Mystique sucked in a deep breath. “I went back to him. He wasn't happy I wasn't at the fight. Told him I was there, just busy working on erasing the contents of the supercomputer. That made him happier.”

“Why did you go back to him?” John asked after a moment.

“Because I don't really know how to do anything else,” Mystique said. “Besides, someone's got to keep an eye on him. He'll get way too out of control if someone doesn't.”

“Raven, you know how to do all kinds of incredible things,” John said, looking over at her. “But I agree with you about him. He's got to be monitored.”

“He was really hurt by your betrayal,” she said. “I tried to explain to him that the Brotherhood abandoned you, so why would you betray them for us? He didn't really understand what I was saying. He just remembers loyal little Pyro who would do whatever he asked of him. The same way he's forgotten I was ever Raven, and am only just Mystique to him. I wish Charles was here. Charles could always stop him when he gets too carried away with things.”

John just nodded. “This is going to sound absolutely insane, but before the whole Registration Act thing came up again, I spent a lot of time in the Professor's office, reading through things. I don't think Dr. Grey actually killed him.”

Mystique's head snapped around to stare at John. “What?”

“He had all sorts of notes about Dr. Grey in there, and quite frankly, I found them fascinating. Anyway, he said that in sessions he'd had with her, she had obliterated things with her mind, just like what Magneto said she did to the Professor. He speculated that the things weren't actually destroyed, but now existed in a state of mental disorder. He thought that if you had the right mutant, and he never actually specified which kind of mutant you'd need, at least not in what I read, but if you had the right mutant, the pieces could be reassembled. So I don't think Dr. Grey killed him. I think he's still there, but in a state of mental disorder. I think maybe you'd need a mutant who can undo things that other people can do. And yes, I realize I sound insane.”

Mystique thought about it for a few minutes. “That really sounds like something Charles would think. And if Charles thought it, it was probably true. Hmm. Do you think anyone would notice if I went in there and read through this stuff?”

“They all pretty much stay away from that room, so I doubt it.” John looked over at her. “You're really that interested in it?”

“Yeah, I am. A mutant that can undo things that other mutants do.” Mystique let out a little laugh and climbed off the bed. “Too bad I don't know of any mutant that can do something like that.”

A day from a long time ago suddenly came to the forefront of John's mind, and the memory of a deathlike grip and vanishing flames flashed before his eyes. “I do.”

Mystique paused and looked over at him. “What?”

“Rogue. She did it to me once. Latched onto my ankle and undid all the fire I had burning. I've got no idea if she'd be able to do something like this though.”

“Rogue,” Mystique murmured. “Hmm. I don't know how we'd be able to have her do it without Jean there, but maybe there is a way.”

“Well, if anyone will find it, it'll be you,” John said, smiling at her. “You've always been more intelligent than Magneto ever gives you credit for.”

“So are you,” Mystique said, shifting into someone John had never seen before. “I'll be in touch.”

“You better be!” John yelled as she opened the door and walked out. 

Bobby walked in a few minutes later, shaking his head when he noticed John was still awake. “I thought you were going to sleep.”

“I had a visitor.”

“Which one of the children came and bothered you?” Bobby asked, sighing. “Kitty and I have been making it very clear that you're not up to visitors.”

John laughed. “It wasn't one of the children. It was Mystique.”

“Mystique? What did she want?” Bobby walked over and sat down next to John, settling himself underneath John's left arm.

“To see how I was,” John murmured, bending down to kiss the top of Bobby's head. “We had an interesting discussion.”

“About what?”

“The Professor.”

John had told Bobby his theory on the Professor once. Bobby had told John that he was insane.

“You told her your theory, didn't you?”

“She doesn't think it's crazy,” John said. “And I only brought it up because she was wishing he was still around.”

“Even if your theory was true,” Bobby started, “I don't know how it would be possible to actually do it.”

“I'm starting to come up with a theory for that too,” John said. “Want to hear it?”

Bobby sighed and nodded. “Only if you promise me you'll get some sleep after this.”

“I promise.”

“I think you need a mutant who can undo things that other mutants have done. Like what Rogue did to me at your house.”

“You think Rogue can undo what Dr. Grey did to the Professor?”

“I didn't say that. I don't know if she can, especially not without Dr. Grey there to touch. But she's the only mutant that I have come across that can undo what another mutant has done.”

Bobby fell silent for a few minutes. “That actually makes some sense, instead of just sounding insane.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Do you want to talk to Rogue about it?”

“No. It's just a theory.”

“We'd have to go to Dr. Grey's house. Maybe bring Logan and Storm. They were both there when it happened.”

“But did they actually see it happen?” John asked. “Because maybe we'd need someone who actually saw it happen.”

“Who saw it happen then?”

John fell silent and, after a moment, Bobby realized who he meant.

“You actually think Magneto would help us do that?”

“He said to me once that the thing he regretted the most was that Charles Xavier had to die for our dream to live.”

“But to bring back the Professor...”

“They were friends once. Maybe they still were, to the best of their ability to be given the polar opposite ends of the spectrum that they found themselves on when it came to mutantkind.”

“It'd still be asking a lot to rely on Magneto for something like this.”

“It's a theory, Bobby!” John exclaimed. “I don't even know if it is possible or if there's a mutant on earth that could do this or if Magneto would even be necessary. It's just a theory!”

Bobby shifted around so he could kiss John softly. “It's a good theory.”

“And yet the last time we spoke about it, I was insane.”

“Yes, you were,” Bobby said, laughing. “We'll have to bring this up with Storm.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” Bobby said, smiling at him. “But first, you need to sleep.”

John groaned. “I need to fuck you.”

“I know,” Bobby said, kissing him harder. “I need that too. But we can't, so for now, you need to sleep.”

“Fine,” John said, sighing heavily. “I'll sleep.”


	11. Chapter 11

_**day 1325.** _

The casts were gone. The sling was gone. Most of the pain was gone.

So of course the first thing he did was pin Bobby to the bed and have all the sex they could stand before flesh became too sensitive and exhaustion took over.

It was glorious. And he wanted more.

But he couldn't have more right now, because they were all headed to Storm's office to meet Switch, the mutant that Storm thought could help with John's theory on the Professor.

John was still a little wobbly on his feet after not walking for so long, so if he leaned a little closer into Bobby than he would have otherwise, well, it was just a necessity.

Rogue and Gambit were waiting at the door to Storm's office when they arrived, and John couldn't help but wonder what it was the two of them were still doing at the mansion. Rogue wasn't part of the X-Men, she wasn't a teacher at the school, she was just sort of there. And because she was there, Gambit was there. John didn't mind Gambit at all – in fact he thought he was pretty cool, especially when he told John about his card throwing abilities – but he could tell that he would much rather have been in New Orleans than in Westchester. 

Rogue greeted them with a smile and then opened the door to Storm's office, and the four of them walked inside. Kitty and Piotr were already there, as well as Beast and Logan, and Bobby quickly moved John over to the sofa, helping him sit down. John wanted to roll his eyes and proclaim he could sit down himself, but his knees were still weak from all the sex they'd had earlier, so he just let Bobby help him. 

There was a woman sitting in a chair in front of Storm's desk, long blue hair falling down her back. Storm was laughing, obviously at something the woman had just said, and John found himself intrigued just by watching her.

When Storm stopped laughing, she stood up and walked around the desk, leaning up against its edge. “Ready to meet them?”

“As ready as I'll ever be,” came a voice with practically no accent, and then she was standing and turning around to face the room. “Hello everyone. I'm Romilly Eastclark. You can call me Switch.”

She was absolutely stunningly beautiful. That was the first thought that crossed John's mind. She had almost an ethereal glow about her, and as she looked around the room, John wondered what Storm was thinking when she had told them that Switch could hide in plain sight amongst the humans. 

It was extremely obvious to him that she was a mutant.

“Well, Switch,” came Gambit's voice. “It's wonderful to meet you.”

She smiled. “With an accent like that, I assume you must be Gambit.”

“Yes ma'am,” Gambit replied, walking over to her and shaking her hand. “Thank you for helping us with this. It means a lot to my Rogue.”

John nearly rolled his eyes again. Rogue and Gambit were entirely too sickeningly sweet sometimes.

Rogue approached her next, holding out a gloved hand. “You're absolutely beautiful, Switch.”

“Thank you,” Switch said. “So are you.”

Storm touched Switch on the arm and then led her over to John. “This is John. It's his theory.”

John started to get up, but two hands were suddenly on his shoulders, holding him in place. He looked at Storm and Bobby before deciding that the argument wasn't worth it, and really, it was better for him to stay sitting anyway.

“Nice to meet you.”

Switch crouched down in front of John, reaching out and touching his left leg. John nearly jumped when the pain faded away. 

“What the fuck did you just do to me?”

“Finished healing you,” Switch said, moving her hand to John's right leg. “I could sense your injuries from across the room.”

John's jaw almost dropped. “You can do that?”

“I can alter the state of things. Switch them back to the way they were before. Your legs were broken, so I switched them back to their normal state,” she said, smiling at him before moving her hand to his right arm. 

In a matter of seconds, all the pain that was left was gone.

John looked over at Bobby with a smile. “She's a fucking miracle worker.”

“No, not a miracle worker,” Switch said. “Just a mutant.”

Switch stood back up and let Storm introduce her to everyone else, and then she made her way back to her chair, turning it around so she faced the rest of the room. “Storm has told me what it is you would like for me to do. I must admit, I've never switched the state of a person who is in disorder before, and I'm not entirely certain I will be able to do it, but I am willing to try.”

“Storm, where did you find her?” Beast asked, obviously impressed.

“She used to be a student here,” Storm said, smiling at him. “When she left for university, we started exchanging the occasional email. Apparently I was her favorite professor.”

“You were definitely my favorite professor,” Switch said, laughing. “Everyone else was too hard on me for my liking. Though, that did serve me well when it came to university.”

“You'll have to tell the Professor that once you succeed,” Storm said seriously. “I'm sure he'd enjoy hearing about it, especially since you picked such a different profession than most of the students who leave here do.”

“What is is that you do, Switch?” Bobby seemed entirely too interested in that.

“I'm a paleontologist and an archeologist,” Switch said. “I work on archeological digs all over the world. I was in Botswana when Storm emailed me asking for help.”

Okay, maybe Bobby had a reason to be interested in that because it sounded rather cool.

“So you dig up dinosaur bones?” Piotr asked.

“Amongst other things, yes,” Switch said, smiling at him. 

“Very cool,” Piotr replied.

“I think it is,” Switch said, looking over at Storm. “So, where's this house at? And when do we go? I've got a limited amount of time here.”

“I know,” Storm said, walking back behind her desk and turning on the hologram table that sat in the middle of the room. “So let's get to work with coming up with a plan.”

John kind of zoned out after that, listening in bits and pieces. The only thing he really heard was that Storm and Switch wanted him to come along to the house. 

And honestly, that was all he really needed to know.


	12. Chapter 12

_**day 1326.** _

John took one look at the house and decided he was very, very glad Dr. Grey was dead. He'd been unconscious when the Phoenix had begun to fight at Alcatraz, and from the looks of things at her parents' house, John definitely didn't want to see her in action.

There was a large condemned sign outside the house, but Storm and Switch walked right past it, so John took a deep breath and did the same. It was only the three of them, but with every step he took towards the seriously damaged home, John couldn't help but think that there should have been more.

At least Storm hadn't made them go in the X-Men suits. Then they really would have stood out.

Once they were inside the house, Storm grabbed a chair from a table that was miraculously unharmed and brought it into the room where Dr. Grey had obliterated the Professor with her mind. Switch gasped as soon as she walked into the room, looking all around her, but her gaze wasn't making it to the walls. It was like she was staring into space.

“I can see him,” Switch said, awe in her voice. “In bits and pieces, but it's him, it's definitely him.”

Storm set the chair down and moved to stand next to John. “Can you do this, Switch?”

“Yes, I think I can,” Switch said, turning to look at them. John almost jumped when he realized her eyes were glowing blue. “It's probably going to take all of my strength though.”

“Well, then I'll catch you if you start to fall,” John said, moving behind her. 

Switch just nodded and began to concentrate, and John was fascinated as an entire blue circle began to glow around her. Switch brought her hands up in front of her and then began to float off of the ground. He took a step back and looked over at Storm, who just nodded at him. 

If Storm wasn't freaking out, he supposed this was normal.

With Switch in the air in front of him, John could see as a shoe began to appear on the ground in front of the chair, and then another. As the minutes passed, there were legs leading up from the shoes, then across the seat of the chair to hips, and then a torso began to appear. Arms came next, then hands, and the last thing that came together was the head, and suddenly the Professor was sitting there in front of them, looking no different than he had the last time John had seen him.

The glow around Switch suddenly went away and she fell back into John's arms, and he struggled to keep himself upright without dropping her. Storm went over to the Professor and knelt in front of him, reaching out and touching his hand. 

“Professor?”

“He won't respond,” Switch said, her voice tired. “Not right away, I don't think.”

“But he will respond, right?” John asked.

“I think so,” Switch said, shifting around so her feet were on the ground but swaying, so John kept his hands on her waist to steady her. “But he was in so many pieces. The pieces of his body were easy to fit back together. The pieces of his mind on the other hand...that was more difficult.”

“Is he going to be the same?” Storm asked softly as she turned to look at them, her hand still touching the Professor's.

Switch shrugged. “I don't know Storm. I've never done this before.”

“Yes, I do believe I'll be the same,” came the Professor's voice, and John nearly let go of Switch from the shock. 

Storm turned around to face him, tears running down her cheeks. “Professor?”

“Ororo,” the Professor said softly, reaching up to wipe away her tears. “There is no need to cry.”

Storm wrapped her arms around his legs and started sobbing. The Professor reached out and ran a comforting hand along the back of her head, then looked up. 

“Romilly, it is good to see you.”

“It's good to see you too, Professor,” Switch said, smiling at him. “You're a very complex man, you know that?”

“And you are a very talented woman to be able to piece me back together,” the Professor said, smiling back at her. “I always knew you were that powerful. I am glad to see you've discovered it.”

John felt his throat tighten with emotion when the Professor's eyes suddenly landed on him. “Professor,” he got out, trying to keep his emotions under control.

He'd never expected to be emotional over this.

“John,” the Professor said, a larger smile crossing his face. “Welcome home.”

“I think I should be saying that to you,” John said, his voice way more vulnerable than he wanted it to be. No one else at the mansion – not even Bobby – had ever welcomed him home.

“Yes, I suppose that is the case, isn't it?” the Professor said, running another hand along Storm's head. “Ororo, please stop crying.”

“I can't,” Storm choked out. “I thought you were gone forever.”

“Yes, well, so did I,” the Professor soothed. “But I am back now, and that is really all that matters, right?”

A large gust of wind hit the house, and everything started to move, creaking. John took one look around him and determined it was time to get the fuck out of there. “Alright, we're leaving. Switch, can you stand on your own?”

Switch nodded and John let go of her, walking over to the Professor and Storm. “Storm, come on. We need you to drive. Switch and I will take the Professor. But we've got to go before this place collapses in on us.”

Storm pulled away from the Professor and stood up, wiping at her eyes to stop the tears. “Right. You're right. Are you sure you've got the Professor?”

John helped the Professor stand, then slung one of the Professor's arms over his shoulders, watching as Switch did the same to his other side. “Yes. Now let's go.”

They got out of the house as quickly as they possibly could, Storm moving ahead of them to open the passenger side door and Switch letting go so that John could maneuver the Professor into the seat. He got into the backseat with Switch and Storm got in, starting the car and driving away. They had barely made it to the end of the cul-de-sac when they heard a loud boom, and they all turned to see that the house had fallen in on itself.

John turned back around and took several deep breaths. It was probably better that Bobby didn't know how close to death he'd come.

He would tell him anyway, because he couldn't keep anything from Bobby anymore.

_Bobby? My, my, I was not expecting that. Not that I disapprove. Quite the opposite._

He nearly laughed when he heard the familiar voice in his head, and he realized how happy he was to have the Professor back.

_I wouldn't go delving too deep into my mind, Professor. There's a lot there that you won't want to see._

The Professor's response made him burst out laughing, and Switch and Storm looked at him like he was crazy.

_Oh don't worry, John. I don't need to see you and Bobby having sex._

That wasn't exactly what he had meant, but if that's what the Professor thought, then so be it.


	13. Chapter 13

_**day 1582.** _

Everything was absolutely fine. 

The Professor was back, the students were wonderful, the new president-elect wanted to repeal the Mutant Registration Act and seemed to have the votes in the House and Senate to do so, and the mansion was decked out for a party.

John sat on the bed and watched as Bobby adjusted his tie, and he tried not to admit how much he was not looking forward to this party. He knew he was going to have to watch Bobby dance with Rogue, and he knew that old, jealous thoughts would be brought up in his mind.

And considering the fact that it had been two years and two hundred and thirty-two days since he'd first kissed Bobby Drake, he really shouldn't have been worried about that. 

Yet, he knew, until he watched Rogue say I do and Gambit slip that wedding band on her finger, in the back of his mind, the thoughts would remain. 

And then the Professor's voice echoed through his mind.

_I need everyone in the study please. And as quickly as possible._

Bobby glanced back at him. “Did you hear that?”

“I did,” John said, standing up. “We better go see what that's all about.”

Bobby nodded and slipped his hand into John's, and they walked out of the room and headed for the Professor's office. They got there at the same time as Piotr, who looked completely uncomfortable in the suit that he'd promised Kitty he'd wear for the party. 

“You two have any idea what this is about?” he asked as he pulled at the collar around his neck.

“Nope,” Bobby said, opening the door to the Professor's study and walking inside, only to immediately turn around and keep John from going inside. “No, we're not going in there.”

“Why the fuck not?” John asked, trying to get Bobby out of his way. “Bobby, the Professor called all of us here. That includes me and you.”

“Just trust me,” Bobby said, pushing John away from the door. 

_Bobby, John, it is fine. Please come in._

John stared at Bobby until Bobby sighed and gave in, turning around and walking into the study. John followed him in, saw who was standing there, and immediately turned around and walked back out. Bobby followed him and wrapped his arms around John.

“I told you.”

“I'm not going back in there,” John said seriously. “No fucking way. No matter what the Professor says.”

Kitty walked up to the door then, took one look at the two of them, and then peeked inside the study. “Whoa.”

“We're not going in there,” Bobby said, holding John closer. “No matter what the Professor says.”

Kitty backed away as Mystique suddenly appeared in the doorway. She looked over at Kitty and nodded. “Nice dress. John, trust me on this, and come inside.”

“No.”

“John,” Mystique tried again, walking out of the office and over to him, pulling him away from Bobby. “I said trust me on this.”

“I've trusted you on a ton of things, Raven,” John said, shaking his head. “I cannot trust you on this.”

Mystique reached out and cupped John's face, ignoring Bobby's cry of disapproval. “Listen to me. This is bigger than any of us and our petty differences. So you're going to walk into that room, and you're going to listen to what the two of them have to say.”

“How the fuck are you even in the mansion?” John burst out with. “How the fuck did he get in here?”

“Because I asked him to,” the Professor said, drawing everyone's attention to the fact that he was in the doorway. “Now, please, will everyone come inside.”

Bobby walked up to John and pulled him away from Mystique, linking their hands together and forcing John into the study. They sat down on the sofa and Bobby kept their hands tangled together. John kept his head down, not wanting to make eye contact with the one person he never wanted to see ever again.

“You can't even look at me, Pyro?” came the voice he never wanted to hear again. “Surely that cannot be the case.”

“The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me,” John said, his voice harsh. “And I see absolutely no reason to acknowledge your presence.”

“And yet you have by talking to me.” The voice was entirely too smug for John's liking, and his head shot up so he could stare Magneto in the eye.

“Fuck off.”

“Alright, that's enough,” the Professor said, drawing everyone attention to him. “We need to talk about a problem that is bigger than any of us and any of the animosities that may exist in this room.”

Storm sighed from the other end of the sofa. “What kind of problem could we possibly have? It sounds like we have a government that's going to be back on our side.”

“They want to repeal the Mutant Registration Act,” the Professor said. “They have not told the public what they want to replace it with.”

“They're past the point of registering us in a supercomputer,” Magneto said. “They want to destroy us once and for all.”

Rogue looked at the Professor, confused. “What is he talking about?”

The Professor looked around the room and then began to speak. He talked about a man named Bolivar Trask, and a program that he had come up with in the seventies that was finally ready to be unleashed on society.

“They're called Sentinels,” he said. “And they are programmed with one goal – to seek out mutants and kill them.”

“So how do we stop them?” Kitty asked, causing the Professor to sigh.

“We can't.”

“What do you mean we can't?” John asked, motioning in the direction of Magneto. “Can't he just crush them or something?”

“The Sentinels are not made of metal,” the Professor said. “There is not a single ounce of metal in them. Erik's powers will not be able to help us in this fight.”

“So basically you're telling us that the government is planning on unleashing big, scary robots to exterminate mutants in this country and there's nothing we can do about it?” Storm asked. “Professor, that doesn't sound like you. You've always got a plan.”

“I fear the program will not remain just in this country, Ororo,” the Professor said. “I believe the Sentinels will be unleashed on the entire world. They will start out small, make sure that they work appropriately. But once they realize they do, they'll be selling the technology to other countries until they make sure there is not a place on Earth that is safe for us.”

“That is why we must band together now,” Magneto said. “Between all of us, we may be able to fight long enough to figure out a way to stop them. Charles and I are very concerned that they are developed beyond any sort of technology that we have ever seen. Mystique has tried to gather information on the program, but details are very scarce. This is being kept very close to the vest.”

“Professor,” Bobby said. “Surely there is some way to defeat these Sentinels. Some weakness within them that we can exploit.”

“I fear not, Bobby,” the Professor said. “I fear for the safety of all mutants right now, even those that we have at times felt as our enemies.”

The Professor looked over at Magneto, and Magneto looked back, and John immediately decided he must be going crazy, because he could swear that was how he and Bobby looked at each other at times. “So basically we're supposed to forget all the times we tried to kill each other and become some sort of team against the Sentinels?”

The Professor broke his gaze from Magneto and turned to look at John. “Yes,” he said. “I believe that is our best chance at survival, though I will be honest, I do not put our chances at survival very high.”

The office fell silent until the door opened, Switch poking her head through the crack. “I'm sure this is all very important, but I'm the only adult in a room full of children and I don't know what to do with them, and I'm pretty sure it's spiraling out of control as I speak.”

“We will be there momentarily, Romilly,” the Professor said, sending out a wave of calm over everyone in the mansion. Once the door was closed, he looked around the room. “Erik and I are going to track down Logan. We will need his help. Mystique is going back to D.C. to see what else she can find out about the Sentinel program. The rest of you need to go to that party and protect the children. Protecting the children is of the highest priority right now. We cannot scare them until there is something to actually scare them about.”

“You actually expect us to go party now?” Storm asked, sighing heavily. “But you're right, protecting the children is the most important thing right now.”

“Yes,” the Professor said. “And will someone please change out the punch when you get there. One of the older children has just spiked it with vodka. I will take care of that later.”

Storm shook her head as she stood up, making her way to the door. “I'll do that.”

“Thank you Ororo,” the Professor said. “Now, the rest of you please go look after the children. Erik and I will return as quickly as possible.”

John stood up immediately and Bobby followed him, leaving the office and heading towards the room the party was being held in. John was silent, while Bobby was calling his name, trying to get him to stop.

“John!” he finally yelled, and John spun around. 

“What?”

“Are you alright?” Bobby asked, stepping closer to him and wrapping his arms around him. “I can't imagine what that was like for you.”

“He's lucky I wasn't wearing my flame throwers,” John muttered, hiding his face in Bobby's neck. “It's never a good thing when the Professor tells you that you're likely going to die, is it?”

“No,” Bobby murmured. “It's not.”

“I can't lose you,” John mumbled into Bobby's neck. “I absolutely cannot lose you.”

“You won't,” Bobby soothed. “We'll get this figured out. Mystique will find some weakness in them. The Professor will figure out how to exploit it, and then we will give them one hell of a fight.”

“I love you,” John said, leaning up to look at Bobby. He didn't say it often, but he felt like now was a good time to say it.

Bobby smiled at him. “I love you too.”

John drew him into a deep kiss, reaching out to flip off Kitty as she teased them while walking past. Bobby wrapped his arms around John's neck and pulled him closer, making the kiss last as long as possible. When they broke apart, Bobby rested his forehead against John's and smiled.

“Wanna dance?”

John laughed. “You want us to make fools of ourselves in front of the whole school?”

“I think we already do that,” Bobby said, kissing him again. “One dance won't hurt us.”

“Alright,” John said, walking hand in hand with Bobby towards the room the party was in.

Everything was not alright.

But with Bobby by his side, maybe it would be again someday.


End file.
